A phone call from President Donald Trump to his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, last November inadvertently sparked a major feud between two powerful U.S. allies in the Middle East, according to a report.
Trump had just hosted Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s de facto political leader, in Washington, D.C., during which he had said in a speech: “His Majesty would like me to do something very powerful having to do with Sudan. We’re going to start working on it.”
The president subsequently called the sheikh to inform him that he had been asked by the crown prince to impose sanctions on the UAE over its support for armed rebels fighting in the Sudanese civil war, The New York Times reports, citing four sources.
A Saudi official gave the newspaper a different version of events, saying the crown prince had asked Trump to place sanctions on the paramilitary group in question – the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF – not the UAE directly, in the hope that starving the militia of external support and bringing an end to the war.
Although the details of precisely what was said on the call may be disputed, the outcome was the same – an eruption of tensions between two Gulf oil states that were fairly close allies until recently.
The flare-up reached its nadir in December when Saudi Arabia bombed an alleged shipment of Emirati weapons destined for Yemen.
The Independent has reached out to the White House and State Department for comment.
The Sudanese civil war has received little attention from the Trump administration so far, but the tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE represent a potentially major diplomatic headache, given that the support of both nations will be required if U.S. policy in the Middle East is to succeed, particularly in Iran and Gaza.
They could also create problems for the president personally, given that he has substantial business ties to both nations.
An Emirati investment firm last year reportedly bought into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund has thrown in with a private equity outfit run by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, to carry out a $55 billion buyout of a video game publisher EA Sports.
Asked on February 16 whether he was involved in the rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Trump said he was not, but he could become so.
“We can get it settled very easily,” he said. “That’s an easy one to settle.”
The phone call affair also complicates Trump’s regularly-repeated claim that he has “ended eight wars” since he returned to office last January, which he claimed as part of his appeal to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and insisted on again at his State of the Union address to Congress Tuesday.
In truth, many of the disputes the president is referring to persist without resolution, and hostilities have reignited in several of the regions to which he claims to have brought lasting harmony.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has become increasingly belligerent under his administration in other parts of the world – forcing regime change in Venezuela, striking Tehran’s nuclear facilities, and fracturing vital relationships with NATO allies over the president’s demands for control of Greenland.
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